Madam Speaker, too often in this country we have taken the approach that we would pick whatever indigenous view suits our thoughts and our process. That is not self-determination. That is not respect. We need to understand the decisions that are made by communities and not take a simplistic view as to what is or what is not, or presume the outcome in an indigenous community.
There is no question that the Coastal GasLink project was widely consulted. A process was undertaken by Coastal GasLink and respected, but we cannot then turn around and presume that there is no complexity in community, that there is no complexity in decision-making, that there is not a challenge towards elected leadership and community, or that there is not a tension between hereditary and elected leadership. That is not the same for every community, and I think we need to open our minds to what the differences are.
The challenge we face today is that before us we have a number of people who are fighting for their rights, and they are looking for a peaceful solution. We need to work with those people and start to listen to them in a way that we have not listened before, and that is what I am asking.
There is no question that communities want economic development. I met last week with people from the Treaty 8 first nations, and they have great projects that they are working on. They want economic development; there is absolutely no question about it. However, we cannot simply say that because that particular point of view suits our political end we are going to take that indigenous community and serve our purpose. We need to respect decisions when they are good and we need to respect decisions when they are bad. Moreover, we need to sit down and listen, and come to a co-operative model of how we move together as a country.